Mowgli’s Nisha Katona: ‘I take curry virgins and I teach them how to cook’

The TV chef and restaurateur on the secret to her Mowgli restaurants’ success – chat bombs – and embarrassing her daughters with homemade curry

I was born in this country, but spent every holiday in India. There, you don’t have plastic toys: you scale fish, you pluck chickens, you grind spices, you form kebabs with mincemeat. Those are my earliest memories, which basically means you have absolutely no fear and no food that was taboo.

If any friends ever came home, I’d beg my mother not to spice the lamb chops. I’d beg her not to put turmeric on the chips. Never worked. Now my daughters are 18 and 20 and when their friends come over they still are embarrassed if I cook curry, because maybe it makes them look as though they’re not fitting in. Isn’t it strange? And the world’s a different place now, it’s really crazy.